Celebrating the arrival of spring with the Fagli festival
Fagli, celebrated across Himachal Pradesh to mark the transition of the season from winter to spring, is a significant and colourful festival with traditional music and dance that brings communities together.
Mata Naina Devi temple in Manikaran town of Himachal Pradesh wears a festive look with glittering, colourful streamers. The temple in Kullu district is decorated for Fagli festival that marks the beginning of Spring. Many deities from surrounding villages, with an umbrella over each deity, arrive at the Mata Naina Devi temple.
Men, dressed in white pyjamas and long off-white kurtas with chunnis (scarfs) worn on a shoulder and tied at their waist, wait to dance during the Fagli festival.
Musicians beat the dhol and a traditional blowhorn, locally called nati. The nati is sometimes longer than the person playing it. The men sit at the courtyard’s center outside the temple and play the nati and the dhol. Women witness the festival from the balcony of the building adjoining the temple.
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While the men play the nati and the dhol, sitting in the courtyard outside the temple, the dancers wearing colourful headgear join in.
With the mountains of Parvati valley in the backdrop, men carry decorated deities from surrounding villages on their shoulders and bring the deities to the Mata Naina Devi temple.
Individual dhol players also join in the festivities, and people at the temple there to celebrate Fagli, reward these players’ contributions.
Men and women gather at the courtyard of the Mata Naina Devi shrine, getting ready to dance during the Fagli festival.
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The community comes together during the Fagli festivities. Here men and women stand together and form a chain holding each other’s hands across the immediate person, getting ready to dance.
Deities – with umbrellas over them – from nearby villages are brought to the Mata Naina Devi temple in Manikaran for Fagli celebrations. On top of the umbrella is what is locally known as chhtar made of silver, gold or brass.
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Men and women standing together and dancing in unison while holding each other’s hands is an integral part of the Fagli festival.
With colourful streamers adding cheer to the celebration, men and women dance around the musicians playing traditional instruments at the centre of the courtyard, while the rest of the community watches the festivities.
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Kumar Gaurav, a Village Square Fellow 2023-24, is a multilingual audio-visual journalist based in Bihar.